Why Hasn't the Mainstream Media Pilloried 60 Mins for Spreading Misinformation?

https://reason.com/2021/04/07/60-minutes-cbs-media-bias-desantis-publix/

by temp8964 • 5 years ago

49 14 5 years ago

That's how all the MSM makes money. Why would they call it out?

jMyles2• 5 years ago

I like to think of myself as a fairly critical consumer of this sort of media, but I had no idea just how specious this hit piece was.

I still think DeSantis is a monster, but his COVID19 response is looking more and more like the winner.

WarOnPrivacy6• 5 years ago

I think we can not tell yet (I'm a FL'dn) what impacts can and can't be attributed to DeSantis. His motivations are clearly disturbing (fine w/ trading lives for economy) and I strongly dislike him.

However, it is most important to me that we learn the lessons that are. If an earnest and incorrupt study (including fixing his skewed death stats) of the FL response exonerates him, then I want to know that.

notes: Some things that DeSantis can not take credit for

ALF responses. My son works at a (worldwide corp) ALF here and they were a model of competency. eg: PPE on day one. Rigid, mandatory vaccines for staff. Ebola-like (my term) response to positive clients, inc full biohazard suits for routine contact.

Counties' responses: It was largely up to counties to impose mandatory mask orders and indoor venue restrictions. Most (perhaps all) did.

jMyles2• 5 years ago

...but that's really the point: it turns out that cookie cutter interventions at the State level are, in nearly every case, a huge failure with dramatic, life-ending or -changing consequences.

I'm in Pinellas County, where there are indoor mask requirements for some places, but no other NPIs in place. Live music is on, gyms are open and people are getting back in shape, etc.

At the end of the day, Florida's numbers are the envy of most states, without any school closures and almost no statewide lockdown. There's no doubt that this will be a model for future pandemics if harm reduction is a primary goal.

Perhaps the strangest and most notable outcropping here is this: DeSantis, who as far as I can tell is a corrupt, prison-mongering, racist douche bag, for some unexplained reason had almost singular gumption to listen to progressive, established epidemiologists like Gupta, Kulldorff, Baral, Prasad - people who obviously have almost nothing politically in common with him. Why?

Let's face it: epidemiology is not a field with a lot of people who you'd view as to the right on the political spectrum (I say with a disclaimer that I think that the right-left dichotomy in politics is no longer a useful tool).

But why did nearly every other governor bench the career researchers and academics and bring in second-stringers, who had much more draconian and authoritarian leanings?

threatofrain• 5 years ago

One of the outlets that Reason is calling out is Axios, but Axios is quite a fresh voice in the news. They often narrate a story in brief bullet points, linking to other sources.

Axios was also praised by the Trump administration (by then-press secretary Sarah Sanders) as a news outlet worthy of being in the WH press room.

WarOnPrivacy6• 5 years ago

I have been happy with Axios, for both their depth and competency of reporting.

sidebar: I have found that in the presence of skilled and worthwhile journalism, my bias about bias just melts away.

WarOnPrivacy6• 5 years ago

I can't recall an instance in the last 30 years, where 60 Minutes was competent and valuable news show.

One particularly clear example is this 2013 interview with fmr NSA/CyberCom chief Keith Alexander, where Alexander is allowed to dispense one factually misleading response after another, in response to the endless softballs gently loosed in his general direction.

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/23/business/media/when-60-mi...

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/why-did...

In my opinion, 60 Minutes is a poster child of federal authoritarian favoritism, regularly shown by news outlets. Poorly challenging a state official just serves to further contrast that.

adidar83• 5 years ago

Does any watch 60 Minutes Australia? I'm in the U.S., but the show is on Youtube. The stories seem a little more hard hitting and honest.

WarOnPrivacy6• 5 years ago

Accepting your assessment, I'd say they the only thing they adopted was the name.

gxnxcxcx• 5 years ago

it has largely fallen to conservative media—Fox News, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, The Daily Wire, Townhall, and others—to cover this debacle. The mainstream media's silence makes it seem like the matter is some contentious, undecided political issue

Maybe it's because I'm a foreigner, but I can't fathom how can Fox News be exempted from the "mainstream media" classification in this kind of rhetoric, particularly when the main point the piece is trying make is that media should be held accountable for their lack of precision.

barrad0s• 5 years ago

Well Fox News is a cable channel.

Why Hasn't the Mainstream Media Pilloried 60 Mins for Spreading Misinformation?

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